THURSDAYMAY 12, 2016
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Area needs 10 doctors
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MARKET SEASON
Courtenay 2937 Kil Victoria 3501 patrick Ave 250-871-6074 Saanich Road Nanaimo 3200 250-382-5269 North Island Hwy 250-756-4114
Larger clinics, turn-key operations could attract JOHN HARDING editor@pqbnews.com
A packed room of residents learned Monday night the current shortage of family physicians in this region isn’t likely to get better any time soon. About 175 people packed a room at the Qualicum Beach Civic Centre — they spilled into the hallways and outside — to hear a presentation by Dr. Mark Morris of the Oceanside Division of Family Practice. Morris said the region is currently short 10 family physicians and the situation could get worse because 10-14 GPs are planning to retire in the next five-10 years. The College of Family Physicians of Canada suggests a family doctor should have about 1,200 patients. Here, Morris said doctors are carrying as many as 2,500 patients and there are approximately 4,500 people without a family physician in this region of 46,000. “You can imagine the wait times (to get an appointment) when there are this many patients a physician is looking after,” said Morris a family doctor based in Parksville. “For me, that’s tough to swallow — as a physician we want to look after our patients.” After presenting all the numbers, Morris showed the crowd what is being done, and what could be done, to help the situation. He said a group of politicians, health professionals, residents’ associations, business leaders and physicians has formed to address the problems. “We are really trying to solve this problem as a community,” he said. Morris said the creation of larger clinics could be one way to attract more physicians. He said doctors, especially new grads, are more concerned about a balance in their lives. See RECRUITMENT EFFORTS, page A9
JOHN HARDING PHOTO
Trill Drive residents Dale Nagra, left, and Charlie McNutt stand where a pipeline is planned for Parksville’s new water system. The photographer is standing in the middle of the railway tracks about 10 metres away and these residents are standing only a few metres from the back door of McNutt’s house.
PARKSVILLE’S NEW WATER SYSTEM
Pipeline plan tight to homes JOHN HARDING editor@pqbnews.com
Imagine a pipeline a few steps from your back door. The residents of Trill Drive in Parksville are facing that reality and pleading with the city to change its plans. Part of the city’s new water treatment and distribution system — a $28 million project that got the go-ahead from voters in a referendum last
fall — is a transmission line running along the rail corridor from the new intake on the Englishman River to the Springwood reservoir. The routing of that pipeline was decided at an April 18 council meeting. Part of the route has the pipeline and accompanying service road on the south side of the railway tracks only a few steps from the backyards of about 40 houses on Trill Drive, chewing up
lawns and shrubbery and flower beds decorated by the residents on a twometre strip of land they recognize is not their property, but it abuts their tiny backyards so they have dressed it up. The residents say their backyards are tiny and close up against the rail bed because the city mandated that much setback from Trill Drive in 2006 before the homes were constructed. See WE ARE NOT GIVING UP, page A8
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